George Edward Bateman Saintsbury (23 October 1845 - 28 January 1933), was an English writer, whom the Encyclopædia Britannica calls "the most influential English literary historian and critic of the early 20th century.[1]
George Saintsbury (1845-1933). Photo by James Lafayette (1853-1923), circa 1910. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Saintsbury was born at Southampton on 23 October 1845.[2]
He was educated at King's College School, London, and at Merton College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. in 1868.[2]
Career[]
After graduating, Saintsbury spent 6 years in Guernsey as senior classical master of Elizabeth College. From 1874 to 1876 he was headmaster of the Elgin Educational Institute.[2]
He began his literary career in 1875 as a critic for the Academy, and for 10 years was actively engaged in journalism, becoming an important member of the staff of the Saturday Review. Some of the critical essays contributed to the literary journals were afterwards collected in his Essays in English Literature, 1780–1860 (2 vols., 1890–1895), Essays on French Novelists (1891), Miscellaneous Essays (1892), and Corrected Impressions (1895).[2]
His debut volume, A Primer of French Literature (1880), and his Short History of French Literature (1882; 6th edition, Oxford, 1901), were followed by a series of editions of French classics and of books and articles on the history of French literature, which made him the most prominent English authority on the subject.[2]
His studies in English literature were no less comprehensive, and included the valuable revision of Sir Walter Scott's edition of Dryden's Works (Edinburgh, 18 volumes., 1882-1893), Dryden (1881) in the “English Men of Letters” series, History of Elizabethan Literature (1887), History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1896), A Short History of English Literature (1898, 3rd edition 1903), an edition of the Minor Caroline Poets of the Caroline Period (2 volumes, 1905–1906), a collection of rare poems of great value, and editions of English classics. He edited the series of “Periods of European Literature,” contributing the volumes on The Flourishing of Romance and The Rise of Allegory (1897), and The Earlier Renaissance (1901).[2]
In 1895 he became professor of rhetoric and English literature at Edinburgh University, and subsequently produced 2 of his most important works, A History of Criticism (3 volumes, 1900–1904), with the companion volume Loci Critici: Passages Illustrative of Critical Theory and Practice (Boston, U.S.A., and London, 1903), and A History of English Prosody from the 12th Century to the Present Day (i., 1906; ii., 1908; iii., 1910); also The Later Nineteenth Century (1909).[2]
Although Saintsbury was best known as a scholar and critic during his lifetime, he is perhaps best remembered today for his Notes on a Cellar-Book (1920), among the great testimonials to drink and drinking in wine literature.[3]
Recognition[]
When Saintsbury was close to death, wine gourmet André Simon arranged a dinner in his honor. Although Saintsbury did not attend, this was the start of the Saintsbury Club: a circle of men of letters and members of the wine trade who continue to have dinners to this day.[3]
Articles by Saintsbury[]
- Thomas Ashe: Critical introduction
- Alfred Domett: Critical introduction
- Michael Drayton: Critical introduction
- Sidney Godolphin: Critical introduction
See also[]
References[]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Saintsbury, George". Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 45.. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 26, 2020.
Fonds[]
Notes[]
External links[]
- Books
- Works by George Saintsbury at Project Gutenberg
- George Saintsbury at Internet Archive
- George Saintsbury at the Online Books Page
- George Saintsbury at Amazon.com
- About
- George Saintsbury in the Encyclopædia Britannica
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.. Original article is at: Saintsbury, George Edward Bateman
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